Shine Through the Dark
by Shadow Vanilla
Summary: [IchiRuki] He can't be dead! He can't be!


Me again. With a new one-shot. P Thanks Kyon-kichi-chan for beta-ing. (Because I spell like a fourth grader)

**Disclamer:** Bleach me no own.

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_Run, run, run!! _Her mind screamed, but her legs felt like lead, and they were getting heavier with each step.  
Her shoes kicked up gravel as she ran, cursing how slow her gigai was the whole time.  
_"He can't be dead! He can't be!" _she sobbed in her mind.  
Thunder boomed overhead, and dumped more rain on to her already soaked form. She wanted to scream but nothing could escape from her throat. Her body felt like it was going to collapse, and still she pushed herself farther. She shivered from the cold and pouring down rain that had already completely soaked through her light summer clothes.

_This wasn't supposed to happen.  
_  
And she blamed it all on herself. Why, why, why had she left him to fight alone! She thought everything would be normal - he would say some smart-ass comment and then lop the thing's head off. She thought he was going to be fine - until she had sensed the reiatsu of somthing big. An espada possibly?

_Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!_ She scolded herself; **_someone important to me always has to die..._**

Rukia hurriedly erased that thought from her mind.

_don't think about it _

_don't think about it _

_don't think about it!  
_  
Those evil little voices in her head started to wear away at her, eating her alive.

Even if it took a thousand years, or cost her very own life.

_She would never stop running_

_IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII_

The seconds felt like hours, and minutes were days. She had no idea how long she had been running, but she knew it must have been for a very long while now, as she could see the pale sliver of the moon from behind the curtains of black night. She looked up at it a second and paused, before taking off again. It was something so unbelievably small; but that pure moon; against all of the dark - had managed to pull though. Maybe her moon: the one who brought shining light to her otherwise dull, flat noble existence - would pull through too. _It was impossible_, she told herself because she knew she had to prepare herself for what she might find - if she ever finds - of Ichigo. And even so, that little part of her wanted so badly to believe that he could be alive: _so she could see the smile he reserved only for her, if only once more…_

_She would find him…._  
_Somewhere..._

_**this place was the definition of ominous  
**There was blood everywhere, and she knew right away it was his. _

Scarlet pools covered the ground around Rukia as she slowly crept closer towards the ancient, rusty park where the battle had been. She put a hand over her mouth to keep herself from throwing up. She stumbled around, dazed with shock and fear. The old playground was deathly - eerily - silent, give or take the rusty screams and howls of the swings in the breeze...

The rain was starting to pour harder now, harder than Rukia had even seen in her life (**and **death.) She mustered all of her strength - the part that wasn't shrouded in fear - and half-whispered: _Ic-hi-go? _Her arms wrapped around her body in a frail attempt to calm herself down._ Ichi--go? _Now she was pleading, and the tears had started again.  
For a second, she thought she had felt a presence behind her, but it was just a resonating clap of thunder.  
_Please...just be okay...like always..._

_She let herself crumple to the ground, knees guarding her small face._

_IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII_

_"Rukia?" _the voice behind her was crackling and hoarse, like it hadn't been given water in a long while. Rukia immediately whipped her head around - and there he was – his body half bent over Zangetsu and crimson gushing from various wounds. Rukia wobbled over to him, unsure of whether he was really there or not.

She stopped short of him, a couple of feet away.

_"Ichi-go? Is that really you?" _She breathed, like she was gasping for air.

He nodded once; slow and somber, and Rukia took a few steps closer; gingerly reaching out her hand she let it rest on his arm. She was greeted by wet, warm blood. He winched slightly at her touch, and she pulled her arm away quicker than any shunpo. He chuckled at her, a sound that was barley audible.

Rukia dragged her hand down his arm, trying to see how deep his wound ran, her hand eventually resting in his. His hand was so warm – and not just because of the blood.

_He's really here…she inwardly breathed a sigh of relief _

_He's really, really here….. _

She let her small fingers intertwine between his large ones. She could have sworn she felt his heart skip a beat, but she sure felt hers. She could feel the fat tears dripping down her face with quiet _pilps, _and in this moment, she didn't really care. She felt him move closer, and move his lips toward her ear and whisper: _"don't cry, baka…" _She nuzzled her face into his blood-stained robes and sighed. Ichigo wrapped his arms around her back, holding her close to him. The sound of his heartbeat – here, in this moment – was all she needed. He was here, with her, and that was all that mattered.

Above them, the clouds were beginning to part, and the starry night sky was unfolding. The rain slowed, and eventually was nothing but tiny pinpricks. The storm was over.

_**It was really over.**_

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Reviews make me happy. You don't want me bleeding black emo blood, do you? 


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